| The work conducted by
Sewall on the GIS database will be a critical part of
properly siting deepwater offshore wind farms in the Gulf
of Maine, to minimize environmental impact, minimize interference
with other users of the Gulf of Maine, and maximize power
output. |
Dr. Habib Dagher,
Director
AEWC Advanced Structures and Composites Center
University of Maine |
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Gulf of Maine Offshore Wind Energy GIS
The University of Maine
The instability of petroleum fuel markets has led to extreme
fluctuations in electrical, gasoline and home heating costs,
creating an economically unsustainable future for citizens
and consumers. In Maine, state agencies, educational institutions,
and key business firms are meeting the challenge through collaboration
on renewable energy initiatives, including the development
of wind power. The State, which leads New England in land-based
wind farm construction, is now evaluating the tremendous promise
the Gulf of Maine (GoM) holds for offshore wind energy production.
The GoM exhibits commercial-scale (NREL Class 4 or better)
across nearly its full extent from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia.
By University of Maine estimates, offshore wind power production
potential in the GoM far exceeds the annual electricity demand
in the State, representing a huge, untapped resource.
Sewall, working in partnership with the University of Maine
through the Offshore Wind Development Initiative, is now bringing
the power of geospatial technology to the study of ocean renewable
energy and wind power production potential in the GoM. This
technology--the Offshore Wind Energy GIS (OWEGIS)--is an innovative
ecospatial information system that is being used to identify
areas for offshore wind farm development and to rank their
potential according to environmental, cultural, economic,
and commercial impacts.
OWEGIS comprises over 400 layers of coastal- and marine-related
data integrated in an ESRI ArcGIS-based data management system
designed to collect, analyze, and display critical environmental
resource information. The data, including real-time meterological
and oceanographic data derived from such sources as Gulf of
Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMOOS), are now supporting
the siting and permitting of a deepwater wind energy testbed
for deploying, monitoring, and evaluating scaled wind turbines
on floating platforms in the Gulf.
With OWEGIS, stakeholders are able to:
- Organize, standardize, and display a wide range of information
(environmental, cultural, economic, commercial) from diverse
geospatial and temporal sources, combining these data in
new ways to model cumulative impacts of ocean renewable
energy development on marine ecosystems
- Assess cumulative impacts in an intuitive, interactive
and visual manner that facilitates siting decisions and
adds transparency to the permitting process
For more information
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